Despite the onset of the “electronic age,” there is still significant demand for print products. Indeed, annual commercial print retail sales may total more than $700 billion. Print service providers (PSPs) fulfill the demand for print products by printing a vast array of print products, such as photographs and brochures, school course materials, periodicals and books, and advertisements and product packaging.
Commercial printing in a PSP is often characterized by high variety. That is, the flow of print jobs in the PSP may be jumbled, setups are common on the various print machines of the PSP, and the environment may have an atmosphere more reminiscent of project work than a systematic manufacturing process. Processing a print job generally involves four main stages of production: pre-press, press, post-press, and shipping. A PSP may determine a production workflow to complete these stages to process a print job to completion using various print machines and stations on its production floor. In some cases, several print jobs may be processed together in a batch. Batching print jobs together can, at times, result in more efficient print job processing than printing the batched jobs separately. At other times, however, batching the print jobs together may result in less efficient print job processing than printing each print job separately. It may be difficult for a PSP manager to discern when and how to batch print jobs to the greatest effect.